Protection is called staying safe

Lets get the foundation clear for Sacred Drumming Sacred Drumming

Being in safe space when you do medicine drumming is
essential for both you the drummer and the person receiving the drumming session.
Sacred Drumming is medicine drumming I regard it as not entertainment but
intertainment. The drumming and rattle methods are there to let sound waves
carry in a message, the message and intent going in is: "return to your natural
state, listen and feel your heart, you flow with the energy of nature, let go
and listen to your blood flow, let me remind you with the drum of your sacred
and earth experience, let go of your fear” At the same time with the drum you
will discover doorways into the consciousness where energy, memories, emotions
like anger and disappointment lie dormant; these experiences can be released
and they will if you as the sacred drummer look in and draw out the festering
"stuff”

But the point of all this is to be safe! If the drum is such
an effective tool of transformational medicine used by countless generations
into the past then the healing methods should have a strong, super strong level
of protection built in…and it does!

Always smudge yourself with aromatic herbs before you begin,
we use white sage, Artemisia, frankincense and a mixture I make containing,
juniper, sage, yew, copal and sweet grass. Do not be shy about filling the
house and room with sweet smoke or getting the smell on your clothes. Relative
to the spirit world the smudge notifies very clearly any unclear spirits that
there is an opportunity about to happen where they can be released!

And then there is the medicine wheel. Before you do any work
on anyone you must invite in the powers of the sacred directions, this goes for
both the giver and the receiver! Go around from south, west, and north and
close the horizontal plane with the door in the east, then the earth mother and
the sky father and finally the inner world inside you. Make sure that you go
round and round inviting all the attributes of seasons, colours, times of life,
archetypes, elements, archangels. Get this medicine wheel so strong that when
you begin drumming you have hosts of support and nothing uninvited can get past
in or out with out being noticed and dealt with.

405 little round
stones called Yuwipi, tiny rocks, the size of seed beads from ant hills are put in to the medicine rattle; this number 405 represents the
number of tree nations and the number of spirits available to help us in our healing
work.

John Fire Lame Deer

"Even the angels cry for the gift of a human body” is a
wonderful saying that makes it very clear where the power of healing lies. It
is our natural human love that is our power.

We are only powerless when we do not call up the support
system available to us. Look at this picture. Imagine the great Giza pyramid, have you
been there? It is absolutely huge and solid, slanting rock surface reaching up
to the heavens. Go to the south face looking over the yellow dessert under the blazing
mid day sun imagine Archangel Raphael standing there looking out with his
flaming staff surrounded by children, healing plants, trees and horses. Go to
the west face look at the setting sun and imagine Archangel Michael with his
gold and silver sword, indigo eyes ready to kick the earth like a football, stand
with your ancestors, see flowing waters far beyond the dessert with black ravens
and bears. Go around to the north, with your back to the pyramid’s slope, look
towards the cold white Arctic Ocean call in all the angels, archangels, spirit
guides and ascended masters, polar bears, white owl and buffalo. Know that you
are born alone but you can call for help when you are in need; in this feeling
of aloneness call in Archangel Gabriel to help you sing clearly. Walk around
the base to the east, see the round red sun rise, and call in the golden eagle
and all the birds, see all the living teachers and imagine Archangel Uriel with
the book of knowledge clothed in red flames. Know that this imagined picture is
real in your heart and head. This pyramid is solid see the earth below solid
earth and rock, look up and focus on the triangular face going up to nothing,
going to sky, empty and space and universe and beyond.

What an amazing picture this is. Now place this picture over
your house, place it over you where you are meditating or working. Imagine now
each face of the pyramid falling out pointing out into the dessert and the
whole structure being filled with the energy of your imagined protective love,
all that support that is available to you. Do you feel safe?

Remember that "Even the angels cry for the gift of a human
body!”

"The medicine wheel is an elusive thing, and because of this
elusive nature, since it began being taught, it has had to take on limitations through
progressive generations. These limitations were put there to help in the
understanding of the whole. When I begin to show you these limitations, when I
begin to define the wheel, it is very important for you to understand that
these definitions are not set in stone. They are not hard and fast, fixed
rules. They are only my perceptions, my way of explaining to you the way in which
I perceive the wheel of Life”

Earth Signs by Grey Owl

In sacred drumming we need to use tools that work and adapt
the tools to our needs and beliefs. It does not matter with the medicine wheel
which colour or element goes where what is important is that we use it, staying
safe and protected as we work with the drum or rattle. It’s crazy to forget to
put your trousers on before you go out? So why forget to call up all the powers
available when we do healing. I call his is spiritual hygiene; it’s like washing
my teeth it’s a sensible morning habit for good living.